Page 107 - Through a glass brightly

girls who wore their national costume printed with the face of the then leader whom we considered a dictator! A bit like having Boris all over a jumper in today's world I suppose!
I do remember one my last visit back to school a few years ago now (must be pre 2014 as my mother moved away that year) and being amazed at the confidence of the say 13 and 14 girls who showed us around - we definitely didn't have the confidence at that age in our time. The world in generaland for women has changed a lot in the years since we started QEGS - I think at QEGS we were at the forefront of a change that was going to come to fruition over the ensuing years.
I do admire Ann and Glenda for changing schools mid "session" and mid curriculum and exams - I don't think I had ever thought about how hard it must have been for you - and for anyone else for that matter. Did you have anyone to come alongside you (a fellow pupil that is) to help you settle in or is that too modern a practice?
Now having written all that I think I will have a cup of tea!
Wednesday, 3rd June
From Pat at 16.06
Well, this is all getting very interesting! I've so much enjoyed all the contributions over the past few weeks and have been particularly intrigued by the recent thread of discussion sparked by Glenda about the academic ethos of the school in our days. Like Jenny and others, I'd always considered myself fortunate to have been educated at such a renowned establishment (thank you, Miss Balaam), and I still do feel that, but certain points that have been raised have really got my old grey cells working......
Positively, yes there were a number of really committed and inspirational teachers. I know Miss Mayer was one for the historians amongst us, For me Miss Hillier and Miss Ferguson were up there too, and even Miss Girling - I loved French from her very first lesson - do you remember that she wore a dark pinafore dress that looked very like our own tunics, so that she could easily have been mistaken for a student? And Miss Bryan was an absolute rock who led us and upheld us throughout our time at school, and beyond. But as some of you have already noted, there may have been times when expectations of academic excellence were pursued to the detriment of a minority. Just as a trivial anecdote, I still vividly recall that in my final report, just a couple of months before A Levels, dear Miss Kitto wrote "Patricia will never read Latin with any ease". Encouragement it was not, although it does underline the judgement she had already formed of my futile efforts when in one lesson she had slumped to her desk with her head in her hands declaiming that she'd lost the will to live (or the 1960's version of that). Val has a graphic description of this in her famous diary.
Perhaps my view is coloured here by the prevailing mantras in teaching later in the century when it was mandatory to always look for the positives, don't criticize, don't encourage competition (I exaggerate, but only slightly). I once struggled to explain to a particular student that I had understood why he had given me an incorrect answer. Eventually he looked me in the eye and said "You can just say it's wrong, you know". (A few months later he was arrested in Crete for drug-dealing. At least he got an unequivocal response then).
Anyway, of the many positives of which we have such vivid memories, I agree with the views about the innovative Changing World course, donkeys years ahead of its time, I suspect, and to be succeeded in sixth forms in the following decades by somewhat scrappy and laboured programmes of General Studies. The most vivid memory to stick with me is of the Art Appreciation sessions, and in particular my first sight of Picasso's Guernica, which left me
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